our was not strong, and in any case he would have upheld the serious
dignity of his own position. One saw from his way of speaking, that he
believed himself about to become a popular hero; already in imagination
he stood forth on platforms before vast assemblies, and heard his own
voice denouncing capitalism with force which nothing could resist.
The first taste of applause had given extraordinary impulse to his
convictions, and the personal ambition with which they were interwoven.
His grandfather's blood was hot in him to-night. Henry Mutimer, dying in
hospital of his broken skull, would have found euthanasia, could he
in vision have seen this worthy descendant entering upon a career in
comparison with which his own was unimportant.

The high-pitched voices and the clatter of knives and forks allowed a
new-comer to enter the kitchen without being immediately observed. It
was a tall girl of interesting and vivacious appearance; she wore a
dress of tartan, a very small hat trimmed also with tartan and with a
red feather, a tippet of brown fur about her shoulders, and a muff of
the same material on one of her hands. Her figure was admirable; from
the crest of her gracefully poised head to the tip of her well-chosen
boot she was, in line and structure, the type of mature woman. Her
face, if it did not indicate a mind to match her frame, was at the
least sweet-featured and provoking; characterless somewhat, but void
of danger-signals; doubtless too good to be merely played with; in any
case, very capable of sending a ray, in one moment or another, to
the shadowy dreaming-place of graver thoughts. Alice Maud Mutimer was
nineteen. For two years she had been thus tall, but the grace of her
proportions had only of late fully determined itself. Her work in
the City warehouse was unexacting; she had even a faint impress of
rose-petal on each cheek, and her eye was excellently clear. Her lips,
unfortunately never quite closed, betrayed faultless teeth. Her likeness
to Richard was noteworthy; beyond question she understood the charm of
her presence, and one felt that the consciousness might, in her case,
constitute rather a safeguard than otherwise.

She stood with one hand on the door, surveying the table. When the
direction of Mrs. Mutimer's eyes at length caused Richard and Daniel to
turn their heads, Alice nodded to each.

'What noisy people! I heard you out in the square.'

She was moving past the table, but Daniel, sudden